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Chicken Shop in Sarasota, Florida

Anna’s play Chicken Shop has received it’s United States Premiere at new venue Urbanite Theatre in Sarasota, Florida, run by Brendan Ragan and Summer Dawn Wallace. It is Urbanite’s inaugural production.

Urbanite Theatre pursued the rights to the American premiere with a mind on adapting the play for an American audience. “We felt it was crucial to tell this story in a direct, relatable way,” says Urbanite Co-Artistic Director Brendan Ragan. “We didn’t want to let our audiences off the hook. The issues this play addresses, societal expectation of masculinity, objectification of women, and the tragic world of human sex trafficking, they’re devastatingly important in the US, and in Florida specifically. We didn’t want to present these issues as alien or exclusive to the UK. They’re immediate and they’re here.”

Anna is thrilled that her play will be the first ever produced at Urbanite Theatre. “It’s tremendously exciting. To be the first play ever performed in a theatre, that goes down as one of my proudest moments so far as a playwright. I love Brendan and Summer’s vision and passion for Urbanite – I hope Chicken Shop goes down a storm.”

Chicken Shop is directed by Barbara Redmond and runs from April 10 to May 3 2015.

Press: This story is real and challenging, you can’t switch off your brains. You have to engage with the play and that’s what this theatre is going to do.”Sarasota Today

On Friday night, Urbanite Theatre opened its doors with the U.S. debut of Anna Jordan’s Chicken Shop. I left with little doubt that Urbanite is the best thing to happen to the local theater scene in years. The Bradenton Times